“The Marathon delivers significant benefits to London, including supporting charities, boosting local economies and promoting physical activity. I am keen to ensure these benefits are shared widely, including through community engagement, volunteering opportunities and local participation, so that Londoners continue to feel proud of and connected to this world-leading event.”

Charles, Camilla, Emmanuel Macron and Andy Burnham walked the length of the 70-metre masterpiece at the British Museum in London on Wednesday evening

The King quoted Shakespeare saying “what is past is prologue” after touring the Bayeux Tapestry with the French president and the Prime Minister.

In a public display of warm Anglo-French relations, Charles, Camilla, Emmanuel Macron and Andy Burnham walked the length of the 70-metre masterpiece at the British Museum in London on Wednesday evening. They were joined by France’s first lady Brigitte Macron and Mr Burnham’s wife Marie-France van Heel.

The tapestry – the woven record of the Norman conquest – has returned to the UK for the first time in almost 1,000 years, on loan until September 2027 as part of a special trilateral agreement between the UK, France and the museum.

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At the end of their walk, it was pointed out to Mr Burnham, Mr Macron and the King that a further 1,000 years of history is not included in the work.

The Prime Minister joked to the French president, who was stood beside Charles: “Made in England, they couldn’t bear to show the end… too difficult.”

The French president smiled and replied “happy end, we’re here”, prompting a laugh from Charles.

In his speech after the tour, at a podium backed by European Union, French and Union flags, the King told the French president: “I well remember our discussing this possibility during our state visit to France in 2023. It is a particular joy, therefore, to see the hope become reality.

“Indeed, it is thanks to the certainty you have always had – and which I very much share – that we are here this evening in order that the tapestry should be seen, in London, for the benefit of the peoples of both our countries: the best possible symbol of that ‘entente amicale’, of which we have both spoken so fondly.”

Standing on the same podium, Mr Macron later echoed the “entente amicale” sentiment as he spoke of “advancing the UK reset” with the EU.

Addressing the Prime Minister, the French president said: “While we do not always see eye to eye, we respect one another, remain open to discussing everything, including advancing the UK reset with the European Union, always closer and together.

“And this is why I really do hope that the entente amicale he announced will inspire this new path forward.”

The tapestry’s journey across the Channel through British and French-built tunnels “is a reminder of what our two countries can achieve when they join forces”, he added.

In the dark exhibition space, the three leaders and their wives shared laughter and peered down at the woven record of the Norman conquest, listening intently to curators.

Charles showed the French president his preferred section, turning around to tell Mr Macron “oh, this is my favourite bit” while pointing to a group of Normans pulling a cart.

The two men laughed as the King said “they’ve got an enormous amount of wine”.

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The three men then gave their speeches watched by a crowd including school children in the museum’s Great Court.

The tapestry was “most likely to have been embroidered in Canterbury by English”, Charles said, before joking: “The Bayeux Tapestry – or the Canterbury embroidery as it might just have been called… recounts a conflict, yet here it is today, nearly a thousand years later, as a precious symbol of trust, at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between nations.

“I cannot help but feel that its protagonists, on both sides of the Channel, would look with satisfaction on the Franco-British gathering here today, and be pleased that our two great nations, which share such fundamental values, have prospered together – across the tides of history.

“As Shakespeare said in The Tempest: ‘what is past is prologue’. We have defended our values together in times of peril. We continue do so today across the world.”

Before their arrival, Great Russell Street was lined with members of the public waiting to catch a glimpse of the leaders.

Mr Burnham waved to a crowd of press as he and Mrs van Heel, wearing a white dress, exited their car shortly before 6pm to wait for their companions.

About 10 minutes later, to cheers from onlookers, the King and Mr Macron drove up in one car and Camilla and the first lady, both also in white dresses, in another.

Director of the British Museum, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, and the museum’s chairman, George Osborne, welcomed them.

They all walked up the museum’s grand stairs and were greeted by Mr Burnham and his wife in its Western Great Hall.

The French president stayed close to the King’s side as they spoke to politicians from both sides of the Channel, while Mr Burnham hung back, chatting with other attendees.

Labour was accused of creating yet another quango as it announced a bid to ‘streamline’ the state.

First Secretary of State Louise Haigh said she had created three taskforces to deliver the Prime Minister’s promises.

But the Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart said it was ‘unfortunate’ that she had also announced a ‘massive new quango’ to reform the civil service.

He said that the OneGov Delivery Agency was a ‘step in the wrong direction’ because it would leave ministers responsible but not in charge.

Following her Commons statement on ‘rewiring’ the state, he questioned Ms Haigh on why she had created a new government body.

‘On quangos, we’ve seen over time that they have led to ministers having less agency over important decisions that affect our constituents’ lives,’ he told MPs.

‘So it is unfortunate that the [First Secretary of State] has today announced the creation of a massive new quango in OneGov delivery agency.

‘This is going to be in charge of government recruitment, civil service pensions, shared services, security vetting, and so on.

‘It will oversee considerable public money. It is a step in the wrong direction because ministers will retain responsibility for those services, but they will lose power over them.’ 

However, Ms Haigh told the Commons that the ‘central civil service is expected to shrink’ under Andy Burnham’s devolution plans.

She said it would mean ‘fewer civil servants at the centre’ despite the Tories claiming that headcount had risen 11,000 since the general election.

She said that she wanted to ‘streamline the state’ and said there was a ‘serious commitment’ within Government to ‘tear away that red tape’.

‘We’ve already been very clear that the central civil service is expected to shrink, that we do want it to be more streamlined, more efficient, and that our commitment to devolution and to rewiring the state absolutely means fewer civil servants at the centre,’ she said.

‘And building the capacity and capability of regional and local government, which has been a huge, huge victim of the decade of austerity and has held back growth in our local economies.’

During the Commons clash, Mr Burghart said he was disappointed that Ms Haigh – Mr Burnham’s Cabinet Office enforcer – had not tried to restrain the Treasury’s power.

He noted that she had previously described Number 11 as ‘imperial’ and said he had hoped that she’d lead the charge to ‘smash the barricades’.

But instead, he said that the ’empire has struck back’ and said the plans for Number 10 North to take charge of growth had been watered down.

‘The real power remains within Number 11 South,’ he added, referring to the Treasury which is under the control of Chancellor John Healey.

‘The Treasury… was the behemoth created in its modern form by Gordon Brown, designed to control Whitehall, designed to reduce department ministers’ authority over their spend and over their decisions,’ he said.

‘So I was genuinely interested to hear (Ms Haigh) say over the summer that the Treasury was an ‘imperial finance department’, and I rather hoped that she was going to lead the charge to smash over the barricades and destroy this terrible imperial power.

‘But instead, it appears that the empire has struck back, because the briefing that we were given initially was that Number 10 North was going to take control of growth.

‘That seems to have been watered down.’

He also demanded to know what ‘powers, levers and budget’ she would have as the head of Number 10 North to increase growth.

Ms Haigh said functions had been moved from the Treasury to Number 10 North, describing it as ‘a little bit of a chip in its empire’.

‘In terms of the new functions of Number 10, we have transferred a number of strategic functions into Number 10 North, including moving local economic growth and devolution strategy from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and local economic growth policy from HM Treasury,’ she said.

In response to Mr Burghart asking how much Number 10 North was costing, she said it had been ‘fully funded within existing Cabinet Office budgets’.

Their exchange took place after Ms Haigh delivered a statement on ‘rewiring the state’, outlining the Government’s plans for devolution, economic growth and resilience.

She announced three taskforces to tackle the cost of living, control over essential services like housing, water, energy and transport, and community renewal.

There is expected to be a continued drive for devolution and she said she would work with regional mayors to deliver the changes.

By CHRISTIAN CALGIE, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE

Published: 17:29 BST, 2 September 2026 | Updated: 01:18 BST, 3 September 2026

Britain’s top civil servant has rejected Kemi Badenoch‘s request to hold pre-election access talks with Whitehall.

This weekend, the Mail on Sunday revealed that the Tory leader had written to Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo, requesting the talks to ensure civil servants are across her radical plans for change before any potential snap poll.

Ms Badenoch argued that she now believes Mr Burnham will call an election sooner rather than later.

She said civil servants must be ready to implement her policies, including quitting the European Convention on Human Rights, slashing benefits, hiking defence spending, and scrapping stamp duty.

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But on Wednesday Ms Romeo rejected her request, insisting that Mr Burnham has no intention of going to the country any time soon.

A senior Conservative Party source said that the Cabinet Secretary had set out that pre-election talks can only be approved by Mr Burnham himself, but because he says there is no election planned, the request would be denied.

Access talks traditionally take place about 12-16 months prior to the end of a parliament, and are used to help the civil service and opposition parties prepare for a possible change of government.

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Antonia Romeo (right) has rejected Kemi Badenoch’s request for access talks with civil servants

Kemi Badenoch believes Andy Burnham will now go for a snap election sooner rather than later

Access talks can only be granted by the Prime Minister, who continues to insist he will not call a snap general election 

Speaking in Ukraine last week, Mr Burnham insisted that an early election is not ‘what people are looking for right now’.

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Asked by ITV News why he wouldn’t capitalise on Labour’s recent rise in the polls to overtake Reform UK, Mr Burnham said: ‘I will tell you why not – because I am focused on the needs of the country and not party-political interest. I am not going to call an election.

‘I said outside Downing Street that I would do politics differently, that I would try to bring people together and focus on problem solving rather than point scoring.

‘I am ruling it out right in front of you. I am going to try my best as we go through the Autumn to bring people together, to get some confidence going.

‘We have had some early signs that there is more confidence in the economy. I want to build that confidence through the budget, working with the Chancellor.

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‘That is what I think we should be doing in the best interests of Britain.’

The third Test begins next Wednesday, with England heavy favourites to complete a series sweep over tourists who have slipped into meltdown in recent days. In remarkable scenes, the Pakistan Cricket Board sent seven players home, called up a raft of replacements and replaced red-ball head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed with his white-ball counterpart Mike Hesson.

NEW YORK (AP) — In the spring of 1951, the muse landed so hard in the caffeinated mind of Jack Kerouac that within three weeks he had hurried out a full-length, single-spaced manuscript — a draft for “On the Road” that he taped together into a scroll some 120 feet long.

Published six years later to instant acclaim and notoriety, “On the Road” may not be the Great American Novel, but Kerouac’s epiphany surely stands as the Great American Manuscript.

Kerouac was among the novelists who embodied the mad American quest to “say it all,” to somehow capture the country’s spirit within a single narrative — the kind of epic ambition behind such canonical books as Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” In “On the Road,” the raw, wild energy that drove Kerouac to type down his thoughts as quickly as they came to him would inspire one of the defining tales of the post-World War II era — two young Beats out for adventure, for kicks, “desirous of everything at the same time.”

Howard says Kerouac had been working on the book for three years before his sudden inspiration. The 29-year-old author was in the Manhattan apartment of then-wife Joan Haverty, with rolls of architectural tracing paper that fit seamlessly into his manual typewriter.

“He realized that by feeding the paper in it would prevent him from having to change a sheet of paper over and over, which would pretty much guarantee a higher level of spontaneity,” Howard says.

The scroll is now a piece of literary history, but it initially helped delay the novel’s release. His publisher, upon seeing Kerouac unfurl his draft, allegedly told him it couldn’t be edited. Kerouac stormed out.

Kerouac’s agent, Sterling Lord, spent years trying to attract interest in Kerouac’s jazzy, unorthodox tale before Viking signed it up, for an advance of $1,000. “On the Road” has since sold millions of copies and inspired countless literary — and literal — quests to “find America.” The manuscript itself has made several stops since Kerouac’s death in 1969. Earlier this year, country star Zach Bryan bought it from more than $12 million.

“Jack never called it a scroll,” notes Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia, adding that the author found the word too pompous. To Kerouac, he said, “it was like the white line of the highway unrolling in front of your front tire as you were speeding down the highway.”

Hillel Italie has been writing about books for The Associated Press for more than 25 years. Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

Patients will be seen and treated quicker under new plans announced by the Welsh Government. An ambitious list of pledges has been announced by the Plaid Cymru health minister as he tries to meet the promises he made during the election campaign and reduce Wales’ stubbornly high waiting times.

The plans mean, the Welsh Government say, that patients will be assessed, diagnosed and treated quicker, rather than spending months or years moving between different stages of the system.

They say health boards will work together to increase surgical capacity, including at weekends, targeting the specialities where waits are longest. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here